SEVEN FEATURES AND COMMISSIONS, 2007–2011
1/ The arrival, collage for Visible Ink
2/ Flambeaux, artwork for the ACE Hotel group
3/ Water, Paper, Paint: Exploring Creativity with Watercolour and Mixed Media, artwork feature
4/ Aquarius: The Water Carrier, artwork for Blanket magazine
5/ Seated atop Kandinsky's chair…, artwork for Uppercase magazine
6/ Dear you, artwork for Uppercase magazine
7/ Keeping an ever watchful eye just to make sure, artwork for NETS Victoria
1/ Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
The Arrival
2011
Collage made especially for
The screen door snaps
Visible Ink 23
Visible Ink is a yearly anthology of new writing and art. Showcasing emerging writers and artists from all over the place, it features poetry, short stories, art, non fiction, photography and anything else you might find on the printed page.
VISIBLE INK 23 CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE SUSAN ADAMS, ROS ALMOND, SIOBHAN ARGENT, JESSIE BURROWS, MELANIE CAPLE, JEAN CLINCH, LOUISE D'ARCY, JAKE DAVIES, ZOE DAVIES, ANUSHKA C DE MEL, JANE DOWNING, JESSICA EISNER, CHARLES FINN, TOBY FITCH, GRACIA & LOUISE, JASON HAMILTON, RICHARD HOLT, JANE JERVIS-READ, SASKIA KELLY, SHANNAN LIM, JAMES MACLEOD, MARK MAHERNOFF, KIRK MARSHALL, REBECCA JANE MCAULEY, KERRIE MCCURE, BRIE MCPHERSON, ZOE MEDRAFT, HUGH MILLER, ALASTAIR MOONEY, MARDI O'CONNOR, CHRISTINE PRIESTLY, CHLOE ROSE, BELINDA RULE, FRANCESCA SASNAITIS, JL SHENSTONE, NYSSA SKORJI, ANGELA SMITH, JAN SUTTON, MADELEINE TUCKER, NICHOLAS WALTON-HEALEY, ANGELLA WHITTON, GEORGIA WIGGS, ALEXIS WINTER, MANUELA YEE, ZAHRA ZAINAL
﹏
RELATED POSTS,
THE SCREEN DOOR SNAPS
THE ARRIVAL
2/ Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
FLAMBEAUX
2011
Posters created for the ACE Hotel group
Let there be the wearing of masks. Let there be the music, fox friends, and utter abandon. Let there be noise, laughter, mayhem. Let lights shine bright, motivating forces soar, voodoo spirits rumble.
●
﹏
MARDI GRAS BENEFIT FOR PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND AT ACE PALM SPRINGS
CELEBRATING MARDI GRAS A SECOND TIME WITH FLAMBEAUX, A BENEFIT TO RAISE FUNDS FOR THE PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND FOUNDATION'S MUSIC EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR YOUNG MUSICIANS IN NEW ORLEANS, FRIDAY 1ST – SUNDAY 3RD OF APRIL, 2011.
RELATED POSTS,
NIGHTTIME PROCESSION
MARDI GRAS TIME!
3/ Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
Water, Paper, Paint: Exploring Creativity with Watercolour and Mixed Media artwork feature
2011
Heather Smith Jones
With photography by Rachel Saldaña
Published by Quarry Books
2011
Our work features in a publication by Heather Smith Jones, designed to help one “unearth your own strategies… blend tradition with new methods… combine what you know with a zeal for discovery and find new ways to approach the painting process”.
Featured artists: Andy Farkas, Kyle Field, Gracia Haby, Anna Hepler, Louise Jennison, Christine Kesler, Margie Kuhn, Carrie Walker, David Wilson, Geninne D. Zlatkis, Shari Altman
Water Paper Paint is now in its ninth printing in English, with translations also available in German, Dutch, Taiwanese, Korean, and Malaysian.
Within the publication’s gallery section, Heather Smith Jones writes, “The collaborative duo of Gracia Haby, (a collage artist) and Louise Jennison, (a watercolourist), known as Gracia & Louise, create works of art, artists' books and zines. Lightly painted watercolours of jewels surround depicted images saturated with colour, as if unearthed from history. Together they relay narratives of new and invented worlds. All of the artists [selected] delve into their imagination in one way or another...”.
﹏
WATER, PAPER, PAINT (HEATHER SMITH JONES)
RELATED POSTS,
WATER, PAPER, PAINT
A GREAT HAPPINESS
4/ Louise Jennison
Aquarius: The Water Carrier
2010
Artwork for Blanket magazine
Issue 22
June 2010
Louise was invited by Blanket magazine to make an artwork based on her star sign, Aquarius. The piece featured in The Cosmos Issue, as part of their artist project, Astrology Psychology. Twelve artist cards were also made available to purchase, download and print, as part of Astrology Psychology.
Blanket magazine is sadly no longer available to view online.
Interview for The Cosmos Issue
Blanket magazine
Issue 22
2010
Aquarius: The Water Carrier (21 January – 19 February)
The Aquarius sign have original and inventive minds so their concept will err on the intellectual side. They will want to come up with a concept that is different and unusual. They will have several different ideas and may try several different approaches before deciding on the final “version”.
Knowing that Louise Jennison is one-half of the dynamic duo Gracia & Louise we were interested to see not only how she would approach the brief as a solo artist but also if any of the characteristics of a typical Aquarian would be present in her final piece.
I am from the eleventh sign of the zodiac. I am an Aquarian, born in the second week of February many years ago now. For this project based upon star signs, I thought about all the things to do with being a water bearer. Our element is Air and we are ruled by the planet Saturn, this I know, but I am not someone who reads my star sign forecast weekly. We are meant to be changeable too, aren't we?
Researching this project, I realised that there seems little else I know of my sign. I decided to look into it further and using water as a general springboard, I set about planning to either draw or photograph a collection of water jugs and various vessels. From this initial idea, it all fell neatly into place. Once I started, ideas came freely. My love of birds needed to be incorporated. I buried my nose in the bird books I own and ones I borrowed from the library. I wanted to draw birds that were extinct or rare.
I drew especially for this project, a Pacific gull and a Papa westray great auk. The Pacific gull I drew was once common on Sydney Harbour. In the twentieth century the common kelp gull drove it out. The Great auk I selected second, as it “is one of the most powerful symbols of the damage humans can cause”. I drew from a photograph of a museum specimen, the last one known in existence. It is from 1813. It is penguin-like in appearance and it “is now extinct, not because of habitat loss, but rather intense human exploitation” (Treasures of the Natural History Museum, Natural History Museum, London).
I wanted to draw these water birds as my companions. I drew them quite large on the page and then with a sharp blade, I cut around my drawing, almost as if setting them free. I planned to photograph them by the ocean. Creating a scene, picnic-like, of me as the Aquarian with my water bird companions sipping water and carrying water vessels by the sea. I wanted blues, the ocean and the sky.
The drawings themselves took a week or so to draw and slowly cut out. Gracia and I then spent a grey autumn day both photographing the drawings in their new environment. In some of the photos, I feature, holding my water birds. Other photos I took. From near to eighty photos, I made my choice. I wanted to paint a scene of an Aquarian water bearer that was not too obvious yet clear. I wanted you to be able to see the pencil markings on my drawing. I wanted to make a drawing that was more than a work on paper; I wanted it to be part of a scene created at the end of a windy pier.
I had a great deal of fun with this project. I enjoyed researching the history of the two birds and coming up with something that summed up my star sign to me.
5/ Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
Seated atop Kandinsky’s chair, the unexpected could be sighted with ease
and
The Spanish mirror had a habit of distorting one’s reflection for the betterment of all
2010
Uppercase magazine
Issue five, Spring 2010
Two collaborative fox collages created especially for and published in Uppercase magazine, Issue five’s fox issue. Our fox confidante featured is a Central European Red fox (Vulpes vulpes crucigera), and we have given him props from the history of art for his patience.
Both of these fox collages also featured in our zine Several foxes enfolded, 2010.
●
6/ Gracia Haby
Postcard Project feature
2009
Uppercase magazine
Issue two, Summer 2009
A selection of eight postcard collages featured in Uppercase magazine (Calgary, Canada) to launch their own Postcard Project.
﹏
RELATED POSTS,
'HE TREATED HER TO ONE OF HIS SMILES.'
POSTED. RECEIVED.
NEST
7/ Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison
Keeping an ever watchful eye just to make sure
2007
Digital collage
Commissioned by National Exhibitions Touring Support (NETS) Victoria
Commissioned by NETS Victoria, a digital collage created incorporating touring crates used for artwork transportation, created for their annual Christmas card.
